My Perfectly Typical Toddler
So I picked up my son from daycare yesterday and was informed that he had been put in his first "Time Out."
We have been attempting this at home with very little success.
He is nearly two and getting him to sit for any lenght of time in any part of the house is next to impossible.
He's a good boy, don't get me wrong, but lately his fasination with our pets has taken a slightly more uncomfortable turn, namely for the dogs.
He has realized that running trucks into them gets them to make sounds he never dreamed possible and that chasing them with said trucks makes for such an awesome game, again, not so much for the dogs.
We've tried the taking away of the truck, (his favorite toy) and calmly explaining the what's and the why's of this terrible punishement but unfortunately we can barely hear our own calmess over the giant sized screams that somehow come out of out tiny little angel.
The screams only stop when he has either exausted himself from the backflips he has been doing or when he notices another interesting toy, perhaps not nearly as fantastic as the truck but hey, a boys gotta do what a boys gotta do.
So I don't get a sense that the consequence is becoming evident to him,
my gut tells me he thinks we are just teaching him that he can have fun with the dogs with all types of plastic devices, not just the truck.
Okay, so where is my story going?
Well you see, as a two daddy family I hear a lot and have read even more about the behaviour that may or may not arise from a child being raised in our type of home.
There are these studies and those studies that tell us that a child being raised by two of the same anythings could have some big issues that show up as they develop.
For us, two men raising a son, I have heard that he could grow to act out in violent ways since he doesn't have that softer more femine influence, (don't say it wink!)
So is that whats happening?
Does it start with chasing animals and end up with lots of tiny little unmarked graves in our back yard?
I know, I'm being a tad dramatic but does it?
So back to yesterday, his school, the time out thing.
Teacher: well daddy we had to put your little one in a little time out today,
Me: Oh, what happened?
Teacher: well he didn't want to use his listening ears today and insisted on throwing the toys around,
Me: really?
Teacher: yes and we explained to him that he had to use gentle touches so that he wouldn't accidently hurt his friends,
Me: well how did the time out go?
Teacher: well he only sat for a bit but he was so much better after he got up and resumed play.
So now I ask her how he's really doing?
how his behavior has been?
is it changing?
escallating?
(remember my crazy concerns)
And she proceeded to say the best thing that these listening ears could have ever wanted to hear..
Nope, he's just a toddler, a typical toddler, no better, no worse than I've seen in my 15 years here.
Yahoo!!
And that my friends certainly called for a little shopping spree,
A bigger truck for my son,
and a new doggie gate for the pups!
I went through all of that too for my boy who is now 6. Want to feel better about how your a raising your child? Take him and his other 2 yr old friends to the local kids pizza/climbing/game playing place. I did that with my kid when he was 5 and i swear he was an angel compared to the other kids. Even the principals kid who we adore, was screaming so loud the people behind us gave us dirty looks. I realized the same thing that you did. My kid is no different than any other boy at that age. The same thing will happen to your little boy. We put so much pressure on ourselves to make sure that our kids are perfect because our households are different that we stop enjoying the simple learning experiences like this. Damn, I should have just saved this for my next column!
ReplyDeleteHi. We’re Julián and Agus, a married gay couple. We have a son together, Martin, and we’ve created Weerlly (www.weerlly.com) in order to provide homoparental families with products to be identified with. We were very sad when we could’nt find then for our son, so we decided to make them ourselves! We wish you like them! We are on www.weerlly.com and on facebook (www.facebook.com/weerlly). Kisses and love, love, love!
ReplyDeleteThe tantrums and frustrations are to be expected along with with the hyper energy; they're all part of motor and social skills development. My nephew, who was raised in the usual type of home, is far worse than your son. He's very unpredictable whenever he has his tantrums. Logan @ FocusOnKidsPeds.com
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